It can be interpreted by many that the Wife of Bath’s tale is a confession of her somewhat lustful actions, evident from the way in which she presents her points – however unusually, rather than wishing to be absolved for what she discloses to her fellow pilgrims, she appears to be defending it. Through the Wife of Bath, Chaucer manages to argue that not only should multiple marriages be acceptable, but that virginity is not a requisite by God. Whilst her argument in the tale is aimed at the remaining pilgrims, Chaucer quite clearly intended for the main audience to be readers in the 15th century, thus her argument is only convincing to an extent as modern day readers would be less easily persuaded by the arguments that she uses. Nonetheless, Chaucer’s techniques would have been very convincing to those reading the Canterbury Tales at the time. The audience to The Wife of Bath’s tale are presumably very religious as they are very quickly identified as Pilgrims – she takes advantage of this fact by using religious anecdotes and examples, thus making her actions seem more acceptable in the eyes of the Pilgrims.
It makes no sense to try to do too much” (77-85). In this excerpt, Ismene is portraying her beliefs that women are weak and that it would be useless if they (women) “try to do too much”. It disheartened me when I read this passage, because Ismene is basically telling her strong-willed sister that it would be pointless to fight against Creon; instead, they should yield to Creon’s orders. It is evident by this excerpt that not every woman reacts the same way toward sexism. Some, like Ismene, may internalize those demeaning values and live by them.
Motherhood and marriage is seen to be a key factor in the society of which The Bell Jar is set ,and is portrayed as one of the things that supresses female identity when Esther is asked to be “Mrs Buddy Willard” as if she is owned by Buddy and not her own person. Even though Top Girls is set in 1980’s England while Margret Thatcher is Prime Minister, it shows direct correlations to the ideas shown in The Bell Jar. Just as the bell jar itself portrays motherhood and marriage to be a hindrance to Careers In the form of Dodo Conway, Top Girls protagonist Marlene symbolises the other option women have in the choice between a career and a family. Marlene, unlike her sister Joyce, is shown to have given up her child for the chance to pursue a career as if having both is impossible; a lot like Jaycee is in The Bell Jar. This essay will argue that In both texts motherhood and marriage is shown to be a hindrance to both women’s careers and their female identity.
The knight’s tale, an alliterative romance and one of the better-known Arthurian stories, and the wife’s tale, the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, give insight into the specific roles of women in the late Middle Ages. The two tales want the reader to determine and recognize that the women are mostly portrayed as manipulative seductresses. Many times a woman is blamed for a man’s fall from goodness to evil. Other times, the plots include women who meet the expectations of what some during the times believed women should be—more reflective to the bible, loyal to their husbands, pure, sweet, and helpless. In the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Lady Bertilak, the main female character and the most important characters in this medieval poem, is prompted by her husband to discover if Sir Gawain is pure or not.
Then the quote continues and states: “You will find them, [women] a set of harpies, absurd, treacherous, and deceitful—regardless of strong obligations, and mindful of slight injuries…” (86). The bluntness of this statement about women would not have come from a man seeking a wife during this time. The female villain of the novel, Mrs. Hammond exemplified these awful characteristics throughout the story. The author, Rebecca Rush was probably surrounded by women, during this time, willing to stop at nothing to secure their future. As the quote continues, “and when your integrity has been
John Lyly wrote “Euphues and His England,” to describe how great a queen, Queen Elizabeth is. Even though these speeches are all about women’s authority, they have their own differences as well as similarities. In Knox’s speech, he talks about how he thinks women are unfit to rule over men. He uses a variety of vocabulary and appeals to convince the audience that woman should not rule over men. In Lyly’s speech, he states how great the Queen is.
Her claim was to argue the problems of how women are supposed to be seen as thin, long hair, and busty. She dismisses that argument as she focuses on her past problems that end up coming out as anger and just nagging. Also, reveals her own problems with her own race. Her bias is revealed as she called the man a “redneck” and called herself a “nigga,” as she stoops down to her offenders’ level. Her unsupportive argument is not to prove the misconceptions of what makes a woman a woman, really her arguments about her own anger and aggression towards her past.
Misha Myles Ms. Broaddus English AP 12 December 2011 Miss-Judgment Judging others by only their outward appearance and background isn’t always an effective way to get to know or understand one’s nature. In the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen the character Elizabeth is influenced by one’s vanity and demeanor and is quick to judge their character. Which she later realize about her grave mistake when she understands that she has miss-judgment of both Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth plays an important role in the novel; she is the most logical out of all of her sisters. Austen reveals Elizabeth’s character as an example about how she wanted to have her own self independence during that time period.
The Prioress of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is a kind, pious, and gentle nun- at first glance. However, Chaucer’s characterization of Madame Eglantyne reveals that she is not simply a devout nun. Through the description of her character and the tale that she tells, it is possible to infer that the Prioress is not as kind-hearted or pious as she would have others believe. While she is not mean or malicious, she is cognizant of the effects of the way comports herself. She unwittingly contradicts the image of the utterly devout Christian nun by being shallow and superficial.
The Wife Of Bath's Tale Introduction - the third fragment consists of the tales told by the Wife of Bath, the Friar, and the Summoner - The Wife of Bath's Tale is distinguished by having a prologue which is practically twice as long as the tale itself - there is a sense of urgency about it and a kind of breathless rhetoric that makes the prologue one of the most dramatic elements in the entire Canterbury Tales - for centuries moralists and theologians had been constructing a picture of woman and her place in the world which hardly accorded with the facts - woman was the Devil's ally - a sensual and deceitful creature who was a constant occasion of sin and the cause of most of man's misfortunes - In the Wife of Bath Chaucer has created a ludicrous magnification of these complaints ▪ she is a woman who freely admits to all the lust, the conniving, and the self-seeking which has been attributed to her ▪ she glories in the fact that she has thus been able to gain the mastery of her numerous husbands ▪ she describes her views on marriage in great detail, starting with the grief she's given all five of her husbands (and which she had a great time dishing out) ▪ her purpose in marriage has been to gain the upper hand - her prologue begins the so-called "marriage group" of tales, in which various aspects of the relationship between a man and his wife are explored through the fictions of several of the pilgrims - The Wife's specific point concerns the issue of lordship or dominance on the domestic front - Who should have the "maistrye" in a well-conducted marriage? - her prologue is a humorous revelation of the tricks she used to gain the mastery over her five husbands - her tale is a romance about an Arthurian knight who loses the "maistrye" to his wife but